Iced Aeropress Recipe (it's better than cold brew)
We’re in the throes of summer here in Niagara, when the sun shines and the cicada sings. During this type of weather I often find myself reaching for an iced beverage of some sort, but it might not be what you’d think.
Because I don’t like cold brew. There, I said it.
Trapped inside the cells of your coffee beans are solubles: acids, sugars, lipids, fats, and more. But here's the thing - you need to use heat to effectively extract those solubles. That's why you use hot water when you're making your morning brew instead of cold water. It sounds simple, but I think we play willfully ignorant when it comes to cold brew.
A standard cold brew method is to steep coffee in room temperature for a lengthy period of time, anywhere from 16 to 24 hours. The longer brew time is required to compensate for the lower brew temperature. Brew it as long as you want though, you'll never be able to extract most of the complex compounds out of your coffee beans and that's the good stuff! Ever wondered why most cold brews taste the same, lacking in sweetness and acidity? It's because it's not physically possible to extract those compounds at a low temperature.
All of that to say, that's why I preferred this flashed chilled iced coffee method. Brewing hot and pressing over top of large chunks of ice, each drop of hot coffee gets flashed chilled in an instant on impact. The result is a cold cup with big character, not sacrificing any of the sweetness or acidity that you should love in your coffee.
It might not be the conventional summer sipper, but believe me when I tell you it’s worth it.
When it comes to brewing, the Aeropress is the perfect brewer for this type of iced coffee. The only other thing you'll need is some big chunky ice. Here's how I brew it!
Recipe
Ratio: 1:15
Dose: 20g coffee, 150g ice, 150g water
Water temperature: 210℉ (99℃)
Grind size: Medium/Fine
Total Brew Time: 5:00-8:00
Instructions
*Prep* Pre-rinse two paper filters in the cap to wash the papery taste out of them and preheat the brewer. Discard water and set cap aside.
with the Aeropress inverted, pour all 150g of your boiled water into your Aeropress and stir thoroughly - front to back and side to side, not in circles. Cap the Aeropress.
at the 4:30 mark, grab your Aeropress securely with two hands and gently swirl the chamber to agitate the coffee.
at 5:00 flip your Aeropress on top of your server and press steadily for 60s over 150g if ice. Stop your press when the Aeropress hisses!
give your iced coffee a good swirl in your server to exchange those final molecules of heat for some cooler ones and then serve in a chilled glass.
enjoy!
Watch a quick video walkthrough here!
*Bonus brewers notes* I like to use two paper filters on the Aeropress for extra clarity, especially since I'm grinding pretty fine. Also, I find this 1:1 water to ice ratio is the best for the temperature of the final drink. It ensures that you have enough ice to last the duration of the drink, as it slowly melts without diluting it too fast. If you need to adjust the extraction to taste I wouldn't recommend changing the hot water ratio, simply brew it a little longer/shorter depending on which direction you need to go!
